The proliferation of a variety of commercial institutions such as motels, hotels and other such facilities has brought about an increase in the number of products and services utilized in connection with such facilities. More specifically, it is well known that in the newer hotels, motels and other such institutions, individual room facilities are generally provided with television sets, or other equipment of significant value. Generally, these items are provided for the benefit of the guests of these facilities, and it is generally intended that items such as televisions, radios or other such items provided in individual room facilities have a useful life of no less than two years.
It is well known that in connection with items such as television sets provided in motel and hotel rooms that the incidence of theft has become a serious concern to the proprietors of such institutions. For this reason, a variety of tamper proof devices have been designed whereby an item such as a television set may be securedly installed in the facility minimizing and/or preventing unauthorized removal. In spite of these efforts, the incidence of theft or other unauthorized removal has remained quite high due to the fact that very few structures have been designed to prevent or minimize such unauthorized removal.
It is especially desirable to provide a pedestal base assembly in connection with a television set which may be easily and conveniently installed within an individual room facility in a hotel or motel which provides both ease of use by the operator as well as a high level of security to prevent theft or other unauthorized removal. These structures are particularly desirable where the pedestal base provides a rotatable platform upon which the television set may be supported such that the room guest may view the television set from any strategic location within the room facility. However, it has been found that pedestal bases having rotatable support platforms are generally not tamper proof since access to the point of attachment of the support platform to the underlying column is accessible to any person in the room. Hence, it has been found that such pedestal bases are amenable to removal of the support platform merely by cutting through the column either below the support platform or at the point at which the platform is rotatably mounted to the column. In point of fact, it has been found that the most common manner of unauthorized removal has been by cutting through the column with a cutting instrument such as a hacksaw thereby removing the television set even though the same may be fixedly secured to a support platform therebelow.
Various attempts have been made in the patented art to provide tamper proof or security type television supports as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,942, which is directed to anti-theft t.v. support. However, it will be noted that the system proposed in the aforementioned patent is basically a wall mounted system and can be tampered with to remove the t.v. set by the use of any cutting instrument such as a hacksaw.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,976 represents another attempt at providing a theft-proof t.v. swival arrangement, but it is believed that the structure as depicted in the aforementioned patent still does not prevent unauthorized removal by cutting through the assembly by an appropriate cutting instrument.